Maurice Ravel

The conducting of Simon Rattle is the most compelling element in this recording of Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with the Berlin Philharmonic. Rattle draws playing of great delicacy and nuance from the orchestra, and the many sections that are scored as lightly as chamber music are played with especially loving attention to shaping the elegant and expressive phrases; the beginning of the second part of the opera is especially magical.

Maurice Ravel - Bolero, La Valse & Rapsodie Espagnole
Orchestre National de France - Lorin Maazel
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 224 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: CBS Masterworks # MK 37289 | Country/Year: Europe 1984
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

"Was Lorin Maazel und sein Orchester hier bieten, stellt an Klarheit und Präzision alles mir Bekannte in Sachen Ravel in den Schatten." ~FonoForum 6/1984

28th December 2012 marks the 75th Anniversary of the death of Maurice Ravel, the great French composer, best-known for his beautiful melodies, orchestral & instrumental textures and mesmeric compositional effects. Many consumers will know Ravel through his masterpieces, such as: Boléro, Pavane pour une infant défunte, Rapsodie espagnole, Gaspard de la nuit, Ma Mère l’oye, Daphnis et Chloë, Le Tombeau de Couperin and La Valse. For the first time ever, a 14-CD Box Set containing the COMPLETE EDITION of Ravel’s compositions. This is the flagship product, the first time ever that a complete Ravel Box has been issued by any classical label.

By virtue of their diverse styles and extraordinary technical demands, Ravel's solo piano works present a daunting challenge to anyone who would record them as a complete set. From the sublime Pavane pour une infante défunte and the crystalline Sonatine, to the dazzling impressionism of Miroirs and the nightmarish intricacies of Gaspard de la nuit, Ravel's keyboard music reflects all aspects of his spontaneous imagination and his involved artistic development. Few performers have completely mastered this complex body of work and recorded it superbly, but versatile Canadian pianist Louis Lortie is in that select company.

Maurice Ravel's music reflects the cultural and creative ferment of his times, as the heady sensuality of the Belle Époque made way for neo-classicism, the Jazz Age and modernism. Strikingly diverse in mood and scale, his works assert his distinctive identity, expressed through craftsmanship of the utmost finesse and beauty: deeply sensitive and balancing sincerity, irony and a touch of provocation. An essential collection of landmark performances, this 21-CD box of Ravel's complete works brings together major interpreters of the present day and preceding generations. There are even contributions from the composer himself, as conductor, pianist (on piano rolls) and artistic supervisor.

Naida Margaret Cole (born 28 October 1974 in Durham, North Carolina, U.S.) is a Canadian-American concert pianist who left a successful career as a recording artist and touring musician in 2007 to pursue medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School, where she is currently enrolled. She has recorded music by Fauré, Chabrier, Satie and Ravel. She has also presented the music of Messiaen, Bartok, Beethoven, Brahms, Chabrier, Chopin, Corigliano, Debussy, Fauré, Liszt, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Schubert, Clara Schumann, Scriabin and Stravinsky. She has performed with the Toronto Symphony, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestras and also with Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Baltica, the London Sinfonietta and the Munich, Warsaw and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras.

Maurice Ravel: Bolero; Alborada del gracioso; La valse; Daphis et Chloe; Raspodie Espagnole –
Schola Cantorum; Orchestre National de France; New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 315 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical | Recorded: 1975 | Published: 1998

Editorial Reviews- Amazon.com
What a potent combo: Maurice Ravel and Leonard Bernstein. Boléro slowly comes to a steady boil without any ingredients overflowing. By contrast, in Alborada del Gracioso and La Valse, Bernstein thoroughly revels in his French orchestra's watery brass and silvery string tuttis. Back in Manhattan, the Daphnis and Chloé suite and Rapsodie Espagnol are lusty without ever sounding vulgar. Some might find the miking a hair spotlit for their tastes, but Ravel's breathtaking orchestration can withstand such scrutiny. So can Bernstein and company. An ingratiating release. –Jed Distler

The three composers whose works appear on this album are interconnected: Ravel was a mentor to Lennox Berkeley, and Berkeley to Pounds. Le Tombeau de Couperin marks Ravel’s movement towards neoclassicism, its forms and style a re-invention of ones from the French baroque. Originally written for solo piano, the movements of the suite were dedicated to friends whom Ravel had lost in the First World War. In 1919 he orchestrated four of the six movements (the version performed here).

Claude Debussy & Maurice Ravel: Orchestral Works
Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn / Marc Soustrot
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 198 MB | Full Artwork: 98 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 337 1099-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2002
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century,Orchestral

Das Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, seit 1995 unter der Leitung von Marc Soustrot, wurde 1897 in Koblenz als Philharmonisches Orchester gegründet und zehn Jahre später von der Stadt Bonn übernommen. Erst 1957, mit Errichtung der Beethovenhalle, erhielt es seinen jetzigen Namen. Von großen Dirigenten geleitet hat sich das Orchester in der deutschen und internationalen Musikszene etabliert. Soustrot gehört zu den wenigen französischen Dirigenten, die sich nicht auf Konzert oder Oper spezialisiert haben und daher über vielseitige Erfahrungen in beiden Bereichen verfügen…